Desert Father Wisdom

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ADVICE FROM THE DESERT FATHERS
1. "How Can I Be Saved?"

Note that "Abba" is the typical title and way of addressing a Desert Father, it means "Father".

1. Abba Anthony
When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert he was attacked by many sinful thoughts. He said to God, “Lord, I want to be saved but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?”

A short while afterwards, Anthony saw a man like himself sitting at his work, getting up from his work to pray, then sitting down and plaiting a rope, then getting up again to pray. An angel of the Lord was sent to reassure him. He heard the angel saying to him, “Do this and you will be saved.” At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and courage. He did this, and he was saved.

2. Abba Anthony
Someone asked Abba Anthony, “What must one do in order to please God?” He replied, “Always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.”

3. Abba Anthony
Abba Anthony said to Abba Poemen, “This is the great work of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.”

4. Abba Anthony
He also said, “Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Without temptations no-one can be saved.”

5. Abba Anthony
Abba Pambo asked Abba Anthony, “What ought I to do?” and he said, “Do not trust in your own righteousness, do not worry about the past, control your tongue and your stomach.”

6. Abba Anthony
Abba Anthony said, “I saw the enemy spreading snares over the world and I said groaning, ‘What can get through from such snares?’ Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humility.’”

7. Abba Anthony
He also said, “Some have afflicted their bodies by asceticism, but they lack discernment, and so they are far from God.”

8. Abba Anthony
He also said, “Our life and death is with our neighbor. If we gain him, we have gained God, but if we scandalize him, we have sinned against Christ.”

9. Abba Anthony
A hunter saw Abba Anthony enjoying himself with the brethren and he was shocked. Wanting to show him that it was necessary sometimes to meet the needs of the brethren, the old man said to him, “Put an arrow in your bow and shoot it.” So he did. The old man then said, “Shoot another,” and he did so. Then the old man said, “Shoot yet again,” and the hunter replied “If I bend my bow so much I will break it.” Then the old man said to him, “It is the same with the work of God. If we stretch the brethren beyond measure they will soon break. Sometimes it is necessary to come down to meet their needs.”

10. Abba Anthony
A monk in the monastery of Abba Elias was tempted. Cast out of the monastery, he went to Abba Anthony and lived near him for a while. Anthony sent him back to the monastery from which he had been expelled. When the brothers saw him they cast him out yet again, and he went back to Abba Anthony saying, “My Father, they will not receive me.” Then the old man sent them a message saying, “A boat was shipwrecked at sea and lost its cargo; with great difficulty it reached the shore; but you want to throw into the sea that which has found a safe harbour on the shore.” When they understood Abba Anthony had sent them this monk, they received him at once.

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ADVICE FROM THE DESERT FATHERS
2. "Want to Be Saved? Imitate the Dead!"

1. Abba Moses
A brother at Scetis committed a fault. A council was called to which Abba Moses was invited, but he refused to go to it.

Then the priest sent someone to say to him: “Come, for everyone is waiting for you.”

So he got up and went. He took a leaking jug, filled it with water and carried it with him.

The others came out to meet him and said to him: “What is this, Abba Moses?”

The old man said to them: “My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the errors of another.”

When they heard that they said no more to the brother but forgave him.

2. Abba Macarius
Abba Macarius said: “If we keep remembering the wrongs which men have done us, we destroy the power of the remembrance of God. But if we remind ourselves of the evil deeds of the demons, we shall be invulnerable.”

3. Abba Macarius
They said of Abba Macarius the Egyptian that one day he went up from Scetis to the mountain of Nitria. As he approached the place he told his disciple to go on ahead. When the latter had gone on ahead, he met a priest of the pagans. The brother shouted after him saying: “Oh, oh, devil, where are you off to?”

The priest turned back and beat him and left him half dead. Then picking up his stick, he fled.

When he had gone a little further, Abba Macarius met him running and said to him: “Greetings! Greetings, you weary man!”

Quite astonished, the other came up to him and said, “What good do you see in me, that you greet me in this way?”

The old man said to him: “I have seen you wearing yourself out without knowing that you are wearing yourself out in vain.”

The other said to him: “I have been touched by your greeting and I realize that you are on God’s side. But another wicked monk who met me insulted me and I have given him blows enough for him to die of them.”

The old man realized that he was referring to his disciple. Then the pagan priest fell at his feet and said: “I will not let you go till you have made me a monk.”

When they came to the place where the brother was, they put him onto their shoulders and carried him to the church in the mountain. When the people saw the priest with Macarius they were astonished and they made him a monk. Through him many pagans became Christians.

So Abba Macarius said: “One evil word makes even the good evil, while one good word makes even the evil good.”

4. Abba Agathon
It was said concerning Abba Agathon that some monks came to find him having heard tell of his great discernment. Wanting to see if he would lose his temper they said to him: “Aren’t you that Agathon who is said to be a fornicator and a proud man?”

“Yes, it is very true,” he answered.
They resumed: “Aren’t you that Agathon who is always talking nonsense?”
“I am.”
Again they said: “Aren’t you Agathon the heretic?”
But at that he replied: “I am not a heretic.”
So they asked him: “Tell us why you accepted everything we cast you, but repudiated this last insult.”
He replied: “The first accusations I take to myself, for that is good for my soul. But heresy is separation from God. Now I have no wish to be separated from God.”
They were astonished at his discernment and returned, edified.

5. Abba Joseph
Abba Joseph said to Abba Nisterus: “What should I do about my tongue, for I cannot control it?”
The old man said to him: “When you speak, do you find peace?”
He replied: “No.”
The old man said: “If you do not find peace, why do you speak? Be silent and when a conversation takes place, it is better to listen than to speak.”

6. Abba Xanthias
Abba Xanthias said: “The thief was on the cross and he was justified by a single word; and Judas who was counted in the number of the apostles lost all his labor in one single night and descended from Heaven to Hell. Therefore, let no-one boast of his good works, for all those who trust in themselves fall.”

7. Abba Nilus
Abba Nilussaid: “Do not be always wanting everything to turn out as you think it should, but rather as God pleases, then you will be undisturbed and thankful in your prayer.”

8. Abba Isidore
A brother asked him: “Why are the demons so frightened of you?” The old man said to him: “Because I have practiced asceticism since the day I became a monk, and not allowed anger to reach my lips.”

He also said that for forty years he had been tempted to sin in thought, but that he had never consented either to covetousness or to anger.

9. Abba Matoes
Abba Matoes said: “The nearer a man draws to God, the more he sees himself a sinner. It was when Isaias the prophet saw God, that he declared himself ‘a man of unclean lips’” (Isaias 6:5).

He also said: “When I was young, I would say to myself: perhaps one day I shall do something good; but now that I am old, I see that there is nothing good about me.”

10. Abba Macarius
A brother came to see Abba Macarius the Egyptian, and said to him: “Abba, give me a word, that I may be saved.”

So the old man said: “Go to the cemetery and abuse the dead!”

The brother went there, abused them and threw stones at them; then he returned and told the old man about it.

The latter said to him: “Didn’t they say anything to you?”

He replied: “No! Of course not! They were dead!”

The old man said: “Go back tomorrow and praise them.”

So the brother went away and praised them, calling them “Apostles, saints and righteous holy men.”

He returned to the old man and said to him: “I have complimented them.”

And the old man said to him: “Did they not answer you?”

The brother said: “No! Of course not! They were dead!”

The old man said to him: “You know how you insulted them and they did not reply, and how you praised them and they did not speak; so you too if you wish to be saved must do the same and become a dead man. Like the dead, take no account of either the scorn of men or their praises, and you can be saved!”

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ADVICE FROM THE DESERT FATHERS
3. "Flee men and you will save your soul!"

1. Abba Isaias
Abba Isaias said: “Nothing is so useful to the beginner as insults. The beginner who bears insults is like a tree that is watered every day.”

2. Abba Anthony
Abba Anthony predicted that this Abba Ammonas would make progress in the fear of God. He led him outside his cell, and showing him a stone, said to him: “Hurt this stone, and beat it.”
He did so.
Then Anthony asked him: “Has the stone said anything?”
He replied: “No!”
Then Anthony said: “You too will be able to do that,” and that is what happened.

3. Abba Arsenius
While still living in the palace, Abba Arsenius prayed to God in these words: “Lord, lead me in the way of salvation!”
And a voice came saying to him: “Arsenius, flee from men and you will be saved!”

4. Abba Evagrius
Abba Evagrius said: “Always keep your death in mind and do not forget the eternal judgement, then there will be no fault in your soul.”
He also said: “Take away temptations and no-one will be saved.”

5. Abba Arsenius
When Abba Arsenius was living at Canopus, a very rich and God-fearing virgin of senatorial rank came from Rome to see him. When the Archbishop Theophilus met her, she asked him to persuade the old man to receive her.
So he went to ask him to do so in these words: “A certain person of senatorial rank has come from Rome and wishes to see you.”
The old man refused to meet her.
But when the archbishop told the young girl this, she ordered the beast of burden to be saddled saying: “I trust in God that I shall see him, for it is not a man whom I have come to see–there are plenty of those in our town–but a prophet!”
When she had reached the old man’s cell, by a dispensation of God, he was outside it. Seeing him, she threw herself at his feet.
Outraged, he lifted her up again, and said, looking steadily at her: “If you must see my face, here it is, look.”
She was covered with shame and did not look at his face.
Then the old man said to her: “Have you not heard tell of my way of life? It ought to be respected. How dare you make such a journey? Do you not realize you are a woman and cannot go just anywhere? Or is it so that on returning to Rome you can say to other women: ‘I have seen Arsenius’ ? Then they will turn the sea into a thoroughfare with women coming to see me.”
She said: “May it please the Lord, I shall not let anyone come here; but pray for me and remember me always!”
But he answered her: “I pray God to remove remembrance of you from my heart!”
Overcome at hearing these words, she withdrew. When she had returned to the town, in her grief she fell ill with a fever, and blessed Archbishop Theophilus was informed that she was ill. He came to see her and asked her to tell him what was the matter.
She said to him: “If only I had not gone there! For I asked the old man to remember me, he said to me, ‘I pray God to take the remembrance of you from my heart!’ So now I am dying of grief!”
The archbishop said to her: “Do you not realize that you are a woman, and that it is through women that the enemy wars against the Saints? That is the explanation of the old man’s words; but as for your soul, he will pray for it continually!”
At this, her spirit was healed and she returned home joyfully.

6. Abba Bessarion
Abba Bessarion said: “For fourteen days and nights, I have stood upright in the midst of thorn-bushes, without sleeping!”
The same Abba Bessarion said: “For fourteen years I have never lain down, but have always slept sitting or standing.”
A brother, who shared a lodging with other brothers, asked Abba Bessarion: “What should I do?”
The old man replied: “Keep silence and do not compare yourself with others!”

7. Abba Agathon
It was said concerning Abba Agathon that some monks came to find him having heard tell of his great discernment. Wanting to see if he would lose his temper they said to him: “Aren’t you that Agathon who is said to be a fornicator and a proud man?”
“Yes, it is very true!” he answered.
They resumed: “Aren’t you that Agathon who is always talking nonsense?”
“I am!” he said.
Again they said “Aren’t you Agathon the heretic?”
But at that he replied “I am not a heretic!”
So they asked him: “Tell us why you accepted everything we cast you, but repudiated this last insult.”
He replied “The first accusations I take to myself, for that is good for my soul. But heresy is separation from God. Now I have no wish to be separated from God.”
At this saying they were astonished at his discernment and returned, edified.

8. Abba Bessarion.
On another day, while we were going to see an old man, the sun was setting. So Abba Bessarion said this prayer: “I pray you, Lord, that the sun may stand still till we reach your servant!” and that is what happened.

9. Abba Poemen
A brother questioned Abba Poemen in this way: “My thoughts trouble me, making me put my sins aside, and concern myself with my brother’s faults.”
The old man told him the following story about Abba Dioscorus: “In his cell he wept over himself, while his disciple was sitting in another cell.
“When the latter came to see the old man he asked him, ‘Father, why are you weeping?’
“‘I am weeping over my sins,’ the old man answered him.
“Then his disciple said, ‘You do not have any sins, Father.’
“The old man replied, ‘Truly, my child, if I were allowed to see my sins, three or four men would not be enough to weep for them!’”

10. Abba Agathon
Abba Agathon said: “I have never gone to sleep with a grievance against anyone, and, as far as I could, I have never let anyone go to sleep with a grievance against me.”

11. Abba Epiphanius
Abba Epiphanius said: “The acquisition of Christian books is necessary for those who can use them. For the mere sight of these books renders us less inclined to sin, and incites us to believe more firmly in righteousness.”
He also said: “Reading the Scriptures is a great safeguard against sin.”

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ADVICE FROM THE DESERT FATHERS
4. " 'Your are a good man, but a little hard!' ... 'You are good too, but not tough enough!' "

1. Abbas Or
Abba Sisoes asked Abba Or: “Give me a word!”
Abba Or said to him: “Do you trust me?”
He replied that he did.
Then Abba Or said to him: “Go, and what you have seen me do, do also.”
Abba Sisoes said to him: “Father, what have I seen you do?”
The old man said: “In my own opinion, I put myself below all men!”

He also said: “He who is honored and praised beyond his merits, will suffer much condemnation, but he who is held as of no account among men will receive glory in Heaven.”

2. Abba Philagrius
There was one of the saints named Philagrius who dwelt in the desert of Jerusalem and worked laboriously to earn his own bread. While he was standing in the market place to sell his manual work, someone dropped a purse with a thousand pieces of money. The old man, finding it, stayed where he was, saying: “Surely he who has lost it will come back!”

He did come back weeping. Taking him aside, the old man gave it to him. But the other gripped him, wanting to give him a share. The old man would not agree to this at all and the other began to cry out aloud to the bystanders: “Come and see what the name of God has done!” The old man fled secretly and left the city, in order not to be honored.

3. Abba Serapion
A fellow brother went to find Abba Serapion. According to his custom, the old man invited him to say a prayer. But the other, calling himself a sinner and unworthy of the monastic habit, did not obey.

Next Abba Serapion wanted to wash his feet, but using the same words again, the visitor prevented him.

Then Abba Serapion made him eat and he began to eat with him. Then he admonished him saying: “My son, if you want to make progress stay in your cell and pay attention to yourself and your manual work; going out is not so profitable for you as remaining at home.”

At these words the visitor was offended and his expression changed so much that the old man could not but notice it.

So he said to him: “Up to now you have called yourself a sinner and accused yourself of being unworthy to live, but when I admonished you lovingly, you were extremely put out. If you want to be humble, learn to bear generously what others unfairly inflict upon you and do not harbor empty words in your heart.”

Hearing this, the brother asked the old man’s forgiveness and went away greatly edified.

4. Abba Sisoes
Abba Sisoes the Theban, said to his disciple: “Tell me what you see in me and then I will tell you what I see in you.”
His disciple said to him: “You are a good man, but a little hard.”
The old man said to him: “You are good, too, but you are not tough enough.”

Abba Sisoes also said: “Let yourself be despised, cast your own will behind your back, and you will be free from care and at peace.”

A brother asked an old man: “What shall I do, for I am troubled about manual work? I love making ropes and I cannot make them.”
The old man said that Abba Sisoes used to say: “You should not do work which gives you satisfaction.”

5. Abba Anthony
Abba Anthony said: “Always have the fear of God before your eyes. Remember him who gives death and life. Hate the world and all that is in it. Hate all peace that comes from the flesh. Renounce this life, so that you may be alive to God. Remember what you have promised God, for it will be required of you on the day of judgement. Suffer hunger, thirst, nakedness, be watchful and sorrowful; weep, and groan in your heart; test yourselves, to see if you are worthy of God; despise the flesh, so that you may preserve your souls.”

6. Abba Sarmatas
Abba Sarmatas said: “I prefer a sinful man who knows he has sinned and repents, to a man who has not sinned and thinks himself to be righteous.”

7. Abba Sisoes
One day the Saracens came and robbed the old man and his brother. As he was setting off into the desert to find something to eat, the old man found some camel dung and having broken it up, he found some grains of barley in it. He ate a grain and put the rest into his hand.

His brother saw him in the act of eating and said to him: “Is this charity, to find food and to eat it along without having called me?”

Abba Sisoes said to him: “I have not wronged you, brother! Here is your share which I have kept in my hand.”

8. Abba Silvanus
Abba Silvanus said “Unhappy is the man whose reputation is greater than his work.”

9. Abba Romanus
When Abba Romanus was at the point of death, his disciples gathered round him and said: “How ought we to conduct ourselves?”

The old man said to them: “I do not think I have ever told one of you to do something, without having first made the decision not to get angry, if what I said were not done; and so we have lived in peace all our days.”

10. Abba Arsenius
Abba Arsenius used to say that there was a certain old man who had a good disciple. Through narrow-mindedness the old man drove him and his sheepskin outside. The brother remained sitting outside. When the old man opened the door, he found him sitting, and the old man repented saying: “O Father, the humility of your patience has overcome my narrow-mindedness. Come inside and from now on you are the old man and the father, and I am the younger and the disciple.”

11. Abba Paphnutius
Abba Paphnutius did not readily drink wine. One day he was stopped by a band of robbers who were drinking wine. Their leader knew that he did not drink wine. So he filled him a cup of wine and holding his sword in his hand he said: “If you do not drink this, I will kill you.”

So the old man, knowing that he was fulfilling the commandment of God and in order to win over the robber, drank it.
The shamed robber begged forgiveness.

But Abba Paphnutius said: “I believe that, thanks to this cup, God will have mercy on you now and in the age to come.”
Then the robber said: “Have confidence in God that from now on I shall not harm anyone.”

So the old man converted the robbers by giving up his own will for the Lord’s sake.

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ADVICE FROM THE DESERT FATHERS
5. "He who does not weep for himself here below will weep eternally hereafter!"

1. Abba Agathon
Abba Peter related that one day when he was in Abba Agathon’s cell, a brother came in and said to Agathon: “I want to live with the brethren; tell me how to dwell with them.”

The old man replied: “All the days of your life keep the frame of mind of the stranger which you will have on the first day you join them, so as not to become too familiar with them.”

Abba Macarius asked: “And what does this familiarity produce?”

Agathon replied: “It is like a strong, burning wind, each time it arises, everything flies swept before it, and it destroys the fruit of the trees.”

So Macarius said: “Is speaking too freely really as bad as all that?”

Abba Agathon said: “No passion is worse than an uncontrolled tongue, because it is the mother of all the passions. Accordingly, the good workman should not use it, even if he is living as a solitary in the cell. It is the hard-working monk who is a warrior.”

2. Abba Anthony
Abba Anthony said: “God does not allow the same warfare and temptations to this generation as he did formerly, for men are weaker now and cannot bear so much.”

He also said: “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.’”

3. Abba Besarion
The same Abba Bessarion said: “For fourteen years I have never lain down, but have always slept sitting or standing.”

4. Abba Ammoes
It was said of Abba Ammoes that when he went to church, he did not allow his disciple to walk beside him, but only at a certain distance; and if the latter came to ask him about his thoughts, he would move away from him as soon as he had replied, saying to him: “It is for fear that, after edifying words, irrelevant conversation should slip in, that I do not keep you with me.”

5. Abba Amonas
A brother asked Abba Ammonas: “Give me a word,” and the old man replied: “Go, make your thoughts like those of the evildoers who are in prison awaiting trial. For they are always asking when the magistrate will come, awaiting him in anxiety. Even so the monk ought to give himself at all times to accusing his own soul, saying: ‘Unhappy wretch that I am. How shall I be able to stand before the judgement seat of Christ? What shall I say to him in my defense?’ If you give yourself continually to this, you may be saved.”

6. Abba Amoun.
Abba Amoun of Nitria came to see Abba Anthony and said to him: “Since my rule is stricter than yours how is it that your name is better known amongst men than mine is?”
Abba Anthony answered: “It is because I love God more than you.”

7. Abba Achilles
An old man who came to see Abba Achilles found him spitting blood out of his mouth. He asked him: “What is the matter, Father?”

The old man answered: “The word of a brother grieved me, I struggled not to tell him so and I prayed God to rid me of this word. So it became like blood in my mouth and I have spat it out. Now I am in peace, having forgotten the matter.”

8. Abba Benjamin
As he was dying, Abba Benjamin said to his sons: “If you observe the following, you can be saved, ‘Be joyful at all times, pray without ceasing and give thanks for all things.’”

9. Abba Arsenius
Someone said to blessed Arsenius: “How is it that we, with all our education and our wide knowledge get nowhere, while these Egyptian peasants acquire so many virtues?”

Abba Arsenius said to him: “We indeed get nothing from our secular education, but these Egyptian peasants acquire the virtues by hard work.”

It was also said of him that on Saturday evenings, preparing for the glory of Sunday, he would turn his back on the sun and stretch out his hands in prayer towards the heavens, till once again the sun shone on his face. Then he would sit down.

It was said of him that he had a hollow in his chest channeled out by the tears which fell from his eyes all his life while he sat at his manual work.

When Abba Poemen learned that he was dead, he said weeping: “Truly you are blessed, Abba Arsenius, for you wept for yourself in this world! He who does not weep for himself here below will weep eternally hereafter; so it is impossible not to weep, either voluntarily or when compelled through suffering.”

10. Abba Gelasius
A cell surrounded by a plot of land had been left to Abba Gelasius by a monk. A peasant farmer under Batacus, went to find Batacus, demanding the plot of land, because, according to the law, it ought to return to him. Batacus was a violent man and he tried to take the field from Abba Gelasius by force.

But Gelasius, not wishing that a monastic cell should be ceded to a secular, would not give up the land.

Furious with him, Batacus, who loved lawsuits, set out on foot for Constantinople to settle the matter. When he came near to Antioch, where the renowned St. Symeon Stylite sat atop his pillar, he desired to see the saint since he had heard much of him. Symeon, from the top of his column, saw him as soon as he entered the monastery and asked: “Where do you come from and where are you going?”

He replied: “I am from Palestine and I am going to Constantinople.”

He continued: “And for what reasons?”

Batacus replied: “About many matters. I hope, thanks to the prayers of your holiness, to return and bow before your holy footprints.”

Then Saint Symeon said to him: “Wretch, you don’t want to say that you are going to act against the man of God. But your way is not favorable for you and you will not see your house again. If you will follow my advice, leave these parts and hurry to him and ask his pardon, if you are still alive when you reach that place.”

Immediately Batacus was seized with fever. His fellow travelers put him into a litter and he hastened, according to the word of St. Symeon, to reach Abba Gelasius to ask his pardon. But he died without seeing his house again, according to the old man’s prophecy.